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- July 2010 (3)
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- September 2010 (2)
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An NIH study of treatments for high blood pressure, called the ALLHAT trial, shows some of the strengths and limitations of comparative effectiveness research to improve patient care. More...
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Oncologist believes CER can’t ‘keep pace with advances in medicine’—shouldn’t get between doctor and patient
Submitted by Tony Coelho on Thu, 04/08/2010 - 19:04 | Posted in:A recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by Dr. Leonard Zwelling, illustrates why treatment decisions must stay between a patient and their doctor and reinforces the importance of the comparative effectiveness research (CER) language included in the recently passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Zwelling, an oncologist, explains the challenges of using CER to set rigid national policy requirements. He highlights how cancer care is continually evolving in that it allows doctors to better address the individual needs of cancer patients whose bodies react to their forms of cancers in different ways than those of other patients:
Building a Patient-Centered CER Program
Submitted by admin on Tue, 04/06/2010 - 17:13 | Posted in:With enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the patient and provider communities now for the first time have a blueprint for patient-centered comparative effectiveness research written into law.
In a recent press release, PIPC outlined the most important CER provisions in the bill.
“Congress worked hard to pass health care reform that included patient-centered CER. The bill will result in the creation of the Patient-Cent
Differing interpretations on procedure’s worth illustrate that no CER result should be final word
Submitted by admin on Wed, 03/10/2010 - 23:42 | Posted in:A recent Wall Street Journal article about the use of stent procedures in the medical community and the reaction to it by blogger Burt Cohen, offers another illustration of the complexities of comparative research, and again shows why results should be used to inform doctors and patients, but not to impose broad “one size fits all” prescriptions that do not reflect the complexities of the science or the differences in individual patients.
Researcher knows common flaws in CER studies, dangers of result's misuse
Submitted by Tony Coelho on Mon, 03/08/2010 - 23:13 | Posted in:A recent article by Jerome Groopman, M.D, provides some valuable, first-hand insight as to what can go wrong when policy makers “give teeth” to comparative effectiveness research (CER) studies by translating results into “best practices.” Groopman’s understanding of the limitations of CER and the complexities of delivery high quality care to each patient, lead him to caution against blunt application of CER in ways that do not give physicians the ability to deviat
New USPSTF guidelines underscore need for patient-centered CER
Submitted by Tony Coelho on Wed, 12/16/2009 - 07:18 | Posted in:A few days ago, I posted about what I saw as one of the key lessons from the controversy over the new U.S. Preventive Services Task Force’s (USPSTF) mammography guidelines, namely, that expert panels can sometimes come to different conclusions based on the same evidence.
PIPC urges inclusion of Senate CER provision in final reform legislation
Submitted by Tony Coelho on Thu, 12/10/2009 - 18:24 | Posted in:Agree or disagree with the recent changes to mammography guidelines by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), one thing is clear – two sets of highly qualified experts can come to very different conclusions when looking at the same evidence. This holds big implications for provisions of health care reform like comparative effectiveness research (CER).
PIPC Chairman Coelho sits down with SCAA
Submitted by PIPC Staff on Mon, 12/07/2009 - 21:50 | Posted in:Last week, PIPC Chairman Tony Coelho sat down with the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association (SCAA) to talk about comparative effectiveness research (CER) and how this research and other aspects of health reform will affect patients.
What did the House do for CER?
Submitted by Tony Coelho on Mon, 11/16/2009 - 21:00 | Posted in:The House of Representatives passed their health reform package - the Affordable Health Care for America Act - last Saturday night by a vote of 220 to 215. With all of the provisions packed into the 2,000-page bill, what's in this historic legislation for comparative effectiveness research (CER)?
Senate's consideration of CER must promote research integrity, patient focus
Submitted by Tony Coelho on Thu, 11/12/2009 - 06:40 | Posted in:As the health reform debate continues to the Senate, it’s important to keep the focus on the patient. This is one of the points highlighted in Politico’s health care issue last week.
Health reform measures must leave decision-making to patients, providers
Submitted by Tony Coelho on Wed, 10/07/2009 - 17:52 | Posted in:Will government-supported comparative effectiveness research (CER) come between doctors and patients in making treatment decisions? The jury, I think, is still out.
We all can agree, as stated in a recent blog post by the Center for American Progress (CAP), that the goal of CER is to "permit patients and their health providers to make better decisions about care based on evidence."
